Monday night TV became shit enough for me to watch 15 minutes of 'Jersey Shore' where characters/people are made famous for being fucking ridiculous.
I'm probably not the target audience but when I looked on the ‘JS’ Facebook page, I saw all the people on my friends list who 'like' the show are either my age or older. Why? Is it captivating because it's so pointless, like 'The Hills', where you watch JUST INCASE something good happens or is it the kind of thing people genuinely enjoy these days?
I read online 'Snooki' was paid $32,000 - $2000 more than Toni Morrison - to speak at Rutgers, an American university. Toni Morrison is particularly well known in the UK as her book 'Beloved' is often an English set-text however it is more her general outspokenness about racial inequality that makes her the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar that so few know her for.
Fair enough, the talk was based in New Jersey so staff thought 'maybe we should get someone Jersey-esque' but why not get John Travolta (duh), Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas, Kirsten Dunst, Lauryn Hill, Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, Ray Liotta, Frank Sinatra Jr., Meryl Streep, Bruce Springsteen, Ashley Tisdale, Dionne Warwick, Tate Donovan, Anne Hathaway, Chris Rock, Stevie Wonder or ANYONE you recognise that I don't on the extensive list of people connected to New Jersey found on Wikipedia? Because students voted on it.
In the same way JCRs here have a small fund designated for socials, so does Rutgers. To ensure student satisfaction and manifest the idea of a 'fun' university for prospective business (i.e. tuition fees) the committee suggested Snooki - who took more than 2000 votes. That's the sad thing. In attempt to win student support the university has probably undercut its reputation for being ACADEMIC. I know, it's crazy that we should actually LEARN while at uni!
I completely understand that the popularity and contemporary nature of 'Jersey Shore' is what makes Snooki look so appealing. Nevertheless what intelligent and inspiring things could a woman who bitches, and then lies about the bitching, ON TV (this is the episode I saw today) say to students who believe in academia enough to pay several thousands of dollars to attend uni - for jobs which will hopefully clear this debt? Oh right, 'study hard, but party harder'. No wonder RU parents are pissed. I could have given that advice for 32p let alone $32,000 (bear in mind that'd get me less far than if I'd accepted my fare in dollars. This is how generous I am and how shit the advice is).
I am in no way justifying the fact that Toni Morrison normally gets $60,000 for gigs because this too is an outrage (I cringed for typing that but it's true) but this Snooki-getting-paid-more malarkey is a par (see Urban Dictionary). The fact that modern students don't care about 'the bigger picture' and are more intent on spending their parents money on alcohol for nights they don't even remember is the greatest tragedy. One in which I am a character. Even then, I still would’ve voted for the Jonas Brothers over Snooki.
Orange County:
Principal: People, June is just around the corner - let's talk graduation speakers... Ideas?
Nerdy Guy: Toni Morrison... she's in town that same weekend for a book signing. She's won the Nobel Prize.
Principal: Interesting... Dana, didn't you say you have a cousin who was friends with Britney Spears?
No comments:
Post a Comment